Box.com is our recommended solution for cloud storage for Extension staff, and its flexible use makes it a powerful tool. Part of that flexibility is in creating folders that belong to either real users (Netids) or non-people service accounts (Enterprise accounts). You are used to using Box with regular user accounts where folders are owner by a real person you can call or email and ask for access. While easy to use, these folders have one major drawback: people leave! Once someone has left the University, any folder owned by that person’s netid is scheduled for removal and the countdown to lost data has begun. 

Enterprise Box folders are owned by a non-person service account and are not at risk of data loss because someone leaves or retires the organization. These accounts will persist and can only be removed upon request by an authorized person. This makes Enterprise Box folders safer for sharing across large groups and large time spans.  

You can read more about the differences in this article from Campus Tech Services (they refer to Enterprise folders as Team folders – though this can be confused for Microsoft Teams and are not the same.)